Season 2 Episode 10 | 26m 47s | Video has closed captioning.
Catalina and Channel Islands National Park are explored aboard a 40ft sailing catamaran. Up close contact with Spinner dolphins and the rare Giant Sunfish highlight this ocean adventure.
Aired: 06/15/21
(gentle music) - [Jeff] We're getting closer to Catalina right now.
And as we get up here we've got some dolphins.
We're coming up on a bunch of dolphins right now.
Here they come, right at us and woo, there they go.
They just turned and now they're swimming right with us.
Now they're right underneath us, just beautiful spinner dolphins, man.
You gotta love these guys.
They are just having a blast playing with us out here right now.
Ah, man.
So beautiful.
We're basically surrounded by dolphins right now, which is awesome.
Look at these guys.
They're so agile and they're so they just move so effortlessly through the water.
And how lucky are we to be having this moment right here?
That you can only have when you're out on the seas in a boat like this.
Just incredible.
Are you guys seeing this, Zach?
Get up on the bow, man, you're missing it.
Look right down here, Zach.
Get right down here.
Look.
Zach is making his way out here.
Get down here and look at these guys.
Get on your knees on the trampoline, man.
We've got these beautiful shots of these guys right now.
(laughs) Zach is muscling through his sea sickness right now to get these shots.
Just incredible, man.
What'd you do today?
Oh, nothing.
Just out on a beautiful, perfectly sunny day with flat seas surrounded by about a hundred spinner dolphins off the coast of California.
You?
(laughing) It's about as good as it gets, you guys.
(laughing) (cheering) (thunder and upbeat music) - [Narrator] When you travel, the world becomes a smaller place.
When you explore with friends that share a love of photography, destinations come to life.
- [Jeff] This water is Emerald green.
- [Narrator] We tell the stories of travel with our cameras, capturing some of the most beautiful locations on earth.
But every adventure reveals more than what's in the frame.
- [Jeff] Thunder boomers, we see them popping up right now.
- [Narrator] The people, the food, and unexpected turns in the journey - [Jeff] Now they're going to swim right with us.
(cheering) - [Narrator] Brings the full experience of travel into focus.
(soft uplifting music) - [Announcer] Outside Beyond the Lens, brought to you by Visit Fresno County: nature, diversity.
Found in the heart of California Central Valley.
Stay in Fresno or Clovis and drive to three nearby national parks.
By Hedrick Chevrolet, supporting the spirit of travel in each of us.
Every journey has a first step, start your next adventure here.
By Fresno Yosemite International Airport.
Rediscover your love for travel with more options, more flights, more connecting you to the people and the places you love.
And by Visit Yosemite Madera County, California's gateway to Yosemite National Park.
Explore the outdoor magic of Madera County and be inspired to discover more.
And by viewers like you.
(music ends) (soft piano plays with sea birds in the background) - [Jeff Narrating] An early morning in Newport Harbor, California, after a long night of getting cameras ready for today's shoot at sea.
- [Jeff] Beautiful morning to the sound of multiple jet aircraft taking off from the John Wayne airport.
(airplane engine in the distance) Dear God in Heaven, that's hitting the spot right now.
That's good.
Ooh.
We kind of stayed up late last night.
We went to bed like at one.
(gentle music) My buddy Mike has been around sailboats his entire life, and recently started sailing this beautiful 40-foot lagoon catamaran, the Songbird, out of Newport Beach.
Getting ready in The Songbird, a little breakfast action.
Did you guys eat breakfast yet?
- [Zack] Yeah I had - I had a muffin.
- [Jeff] You got some Take a look, Zack.
- [Zack] Got some good stuff here - [Jeff] Oh yeah - [Zack] That's mine.
- [Jeff] Okay - [Zack] Don't touch that - [Jeff] Did you already lick it?
- [Zack] Don't touch that one.
(Jeff and Zack laughing) - [Jeff] Alright So we're just getting over here.
- [Zack] Called it - [Jeff] We're kinda just got our gear all sorta just spread out right now um so we can grab it as we're uh as we're cruising.
The galley's pretty good size in here.
You know, you've got your microwave oven, you got your coffee maker, stove top, you've got a fridge right here.
And one thing I love about these lagoons is the visibility out of the, out of the main cabin and the windows that wrap all the way around.
- [Unknown Speaker] Go ahead and release it, Jeff.
- [Jeff] Okay.
We are free.
I've been out with Mike a few times on the songbird and thought it would be fun to shoot a show with Dave and Zack to capture some of the sights and sounds that make sailing in this part of the world unique and try and photograph the abundant marine life you can encounter when making the run over to and around Catalina.
Couldn't ask for a better day so far, man.
I mean, we've got blue skies.
It's probably 60, high sixties right now.
Be interesting to see if we've got a little wind out there when we get out past the jetty.
One of the things I always do is when I'm here at Newport beach too is marvel at all these homes.
These beautiful, little, you know homes right on the marina, Historic Balboa Island Newport beach is a great part of Southern California great part of the country.
And some of these old homes have been here a long time and it's just a great, awesome place to sail, boat, You know, another thing that's really popular out here is the, are the Duffy rentals the little Duffy boats, some people rent and you can take a little cruise around inside the Harbor here and get a really, you know, up close look at these multimillion dollar bungalows and homes.
Some of them are pretty big.
- [Narrator] The wind isn't forecast to be all that great for sailing today.
So our plan is to just use the motors and head up the coast then shoot straight over to Catalina for the night.
The gorgeous seaside town of Avalon is our final destination today where we'll rent a mooring ball for the night and sleep on the songbird.
The flip side to the wind being light to non-existent today is that spotting Marine life on the ocean is much easier when the wind isn't causing waves, it's easy to get up close and personal with the creatures of the sea.
- [Jeff] All right this is cool.
We're just outside Newport beach here at Harbor and we've got sea lions hanging out on the entrance buoy to the Harbor here.
Get some good shots of these guys.
Our first little bit of Marine life this morning from the Songbird.
Pretty cool.
They're like, why are you guys bugging us?
We're just chillin' right here.
Trying to stay away from great white sharks right now.
Yeah it's really cool to be able to get this close to them.
We don't want to, we don't want to harass them too much, but they are fun to watch.
Got a couple of pups in there.
- [Narrator] These sea lions are regular visitors inside the Harbor too, and usually stay pretty close to the places where they can hide from predators.
Their main concern, the great white shark.
One thing I always do when I'm on the Songbird is put a line out and troll while underway.
The fishing is really good closer to Catalina.
But even out here, you never know what might hit that plug dragging behind the boat.
- [Jeff] And what I love about being out here Southern California especially is there's so much marine life that you can see on just a little day trip like this.
You know?
You can just go out right out of the Harbor.
It's not uncommon to see dolphins right away.
We just saw sea lions.
If you're lucky enough, uh well you may not consider it luck but there's a lot of great white shark activity out here.
So, you know it'd be great to see a great white shark for me personally that'd be a dream to encounter a great white out here and there's all kinds of other stuff you can see out here.
The whales, the whale-watching out here is, is awesome at different times of the year.
You've got the blue whales that come through here, humpbacks, gray whales.
So it's really part of the fun when you're out here sailing like this is just the constant watching of the waterline and the horizon for activity.
If you see a group of birds work in a certain area there's probably something there to pay attention to.
Look for the blowhole spray of a whale.
You know, there's all, it's just, it's just fun.
All your senses are engaged out here on a on a day on the water sailing like this.
- [Jeff] Hey, you want me to get on top, Mike?
- [Mike] Yeah.
- [Jeff] Okay we're getting ready to raise the main sail now out here, we're just off of kind of coming up on Long Beach just off the coast, heading north.
A beautiful, clear day.
You can see Catalina off in the distance back there.
We can have, we should have a straight shot.
There's no marine layer, no fog right now, which is awesome.
So Mike has slowed the engines down a little bit.
He's put the boat directly into the wind.
Well sort of, the wind's really light.
I'm going to climb up and then kind of help make sure the sail goes up through the jacklines correctly.
And then once that's up, we're going to lay the boat over into the wind a little bit and just keep on sailing up the coast.
- [Narrator] Even though the wind is still kind of a no-show Mike likes to put the main sail up to help stabilize the Songbird and catch any wind that might come up while motor singing.
- [Unknown Speaker] Right now if you're ready - [Jeff] Yeah, here we go.
Raising the main.
- [Unknown Speaker] Running smooth.
(guitar music) - [Narrator] It only takes a few minutes to get the main sail up.
And with the wind this light, we won't even try to fly the jib sail out in front.
With a new course set for Avalon, it's time to settle in for the four hour run to Catalina and keep our eyes on the seas, looking for life.
It was about that time I started to also keep an eye on Zack Allen.
Over the years, I've traveled a lot with Zack and I've learned that he doesn't do well with movement.
I've seen this guy get motion sick on bumpy landings into Vegas and even have to take a knee one time after getting off a ride at Disneyland.
So even though he took two Dramamine to help with the seasickness, I could tell he wasn't exactly living his best life right now.
- [Unknown Speaker] Are you seasick, Zack?
- [Zack] Not yet.
Not yet.
I'll let you know.
- [Jeff] You're like actually looking green.
- [Zack] It's a martian sunburn.
- [Narrator] Even trying different positions on the Songbird didn't seem to help Zack from the train headed well down the tracks by now.
Next stop Pukesville.
- [Zack] That seat in the back (inaudible) - [Unknown Speaker] Zack's not doing so hot.
- [Jeff] Zack had a little time-out.
He's having a little trouble with his sea legs.
- [Narrator] The good news for Zack, he's about to have something take his mind off the nausea and visits to the back of the boat.
- [Jeff] We're getting closer to Catalina right now.
And as we get up here, we've got some dolphins.
We're coming up on a bunch of dolphins right now.
Check this out, I'm gonna turn the camera around so you can see these guys.
There they come right at us and whoooom.
There they go.
They just turned, and now they're swimming right with us.
Huge bait ball right there.
Oh man, this is awesome.
You can see them off the side of the boat here.
We're basically surrounded by dolphins right now.
Which is awesome.
Look at that.
Look at these guys.
They're so agile and they're so they just move so effortlessly through the water.
It's just amazing.
(laughing) And how lucky are we to be having this moment right here that you can only have when you're out on the seas in a boat like this?
Just incredible.
Are you guys seeing this?
Zack, get up on the bow, man.
You're missing it.
Look right down here, Zack.
- [Zack] (inaudible) - [Jeff] Get right down here, look.
Zack is making his way out here.
Get down here, look at these guys.
Get on your knees on the trampoline, man.
You guys we got just beautiful shots of these guys right now, (laughing) Zack is muscling through his seasickness right now to get these shots.
There comes some little baby guys.
Some little babies are coming in and they're going right underneath.
They're like, "Hey, whoa we wanna play too."
Let's go.
Woohoo!
What'd you do today?
Oh, nothing just out on a beautiful, perfectly sunny day with flat seas, surrounded by about a hundred spinner dolphins off the coast of California.
You?
Look at these guys behind me, man.
Oh, I actually got dolphin spray in my face.
That's a first.
- [Narrator] In my excitement and eagerness to be a show off, I misidentified these dolphins as spinner dolphins.
They are actually common dolphins.
Although I have to say there was nothing common about them to me.
Common dolphins are prolific around the channel islands and regularly interact with boats of all kinds out here.
Last summer, while on another trip aboard the Songbird with Mike and our families, we encountered a massive pot of these common dolphins on the west side of Catalina while sailing around the entire island.
- [Unknown Speaker] Get up here Here we go baby!
Now they are gonna swim right with us.
(cheering) That is what it's all about, folks.
Yeah!
Look at them down there, look at them all.
- [Unknown Speaker] Coming back in, look at them, man.
They're just beautiful.
- [Jeff] What do you think, buddy?
Pretty cool?
- [Man wearing gray hat And pointing] That's rad.
- [Jeff] Look at them all.
Now they are cruising off to the side.
Right, let's go over there.
- [Narrator] Sailing aboard these catamarans is an amazing way to enjoy the beauty of the ocean, the diverse sea life here, and destinations like Catalina Island.
(calming music begins) - [Narrator] Like life in general, sometimes we're so busy sailing to the next destination, we miss the opportunity to just stop and float quietly on the ocean.
(calming music continues) - [Narrator] We cut the motors on Songbird and with no wind blowing, just floated in the middle of the channel to be a part of this environment instead of moving through it.
(calming music continues) - [Narrator] What that one act did, along with a lot of luck, was give us an opportunity to see up close and experience a rare and mysterious friend from the deep.
- [Jeff] We're cruising up on a giant.
Keep him on this side, Mike.
We're cruising up on a giant sunfish.
Look at this guy.
Can you guys see that?
He's swimming right below us right now.
We're circling him right now.
What happens is these sunfish, they they, they hunt so far deep down in the ocean that they use up all their energy.
And then what they do is they come up and they kind of roll over on their side like he's doing now.
And they just let the side warm their bodies.
And, they're just amazing, huge oddly shaped creatures.
And he's just kind of cruising.
If you were just to cruise by it, you would think you're looking at a shark at the way that fin is uh sort of waving back and forth in the water.
But he was sleeping when we rolled up on him, and now he's, now he's moving along.
You guys getting a good shot of him?
- [Unknown Speaker] Yeah.
- [Narrator] The ocean sunfish, or common Mola, lives in oceans all around the world, and spends most of its time down deep hunting squid and jellyfish.
This one is still pretty small.
Large adult sunfish can weigh up to 2000 pounds.
They come to the surface to thermally regenerate after long periods in deep cold water.
We didn't want to get too close to this one since it seemed really exhausted, but floated near it enough to get some shots of this odd and somewhat rare site out here in the channel.
(music begins) - [Narrator] With Catalina Island now getting bigger in the window, it's time to take the Songbird into Avalon for the night.
(music continues) - [Narrator] Avalon Harbor is a popular place for power and sailboat owners from Southern California to come over the weekend.
And several ferry services make trips out here every day.
- [Jeff] So the rule here, at some point you call into the Harbor master and say hey, - [Mike] I just pull up to the Harbor entrance, they come out.
If you do call them, then they're like, 'As per standard procedure, the harbor patrol will be out to meet you.'
- [Jeff] They just tell you 'don't call us.'
- [Mike] (laughing) Right.
- [Jeff] Gotcha, so you pull up to the main entry buoy and you just sit tight, they'll come out and say 'what's your business' - [Mike] Right - [Jeff] You say, 'I want a mooring ball for the night.'
- [Mike] Right - [Jeff] They say, 'Okay..' - [Mike] How long are you?
- [Jeff] How long?
One night - [Mike] Yeah - [Jeff] They're gonna say, what is it 70 bucks?
80 bucks?
- [Mike] I think it's 55.
- [Jeff] 55 bucks for the night - [Mike] Yeah - [Jeff] And then - [Mike] So - [Jeff] And then they'll look on a map and say, 'go ahead and go to ball Echo 42' and then he'll tell you where to go and we'll go and line up on the ball.
- [Mike] Yeah typically if it's really empty, they'll give you a little bit larger ball so it's a little bit easier to - [Jeff] To do it?
Yeah - [Mike] To pull the lines up, give you a little bit of room - [Jeff] Don't yell at us if we're not good at putting all this stuff up, we're rusty.
- [Mike] Hey, worst case scenario we just drop the lines and do it again.
It's no big deal.
(music continues) - [Narrator] Once we're safely hooked up to the ball, the work for the day is over.
Our floating hotel rooms for the night become an exclusive place to relax, unwind, take in stunning views of Avalon, And, for Captain Mike, get a little shut eye.
(music continues) - [Narrator] Life around the harbor is quiet tonight.
We're here on a Tuesday, so boat traffic is almost non-existent and after some downtime to steady our legs, we decide to go into Avalon for dinner.
- [Mike] Can we get a shore boat at ball 2, 2, 7?
- [Unknown Speaker] Roger that, 227.
How many?
- [Mike] Party of four.
- [Unknown Speaker] Copy.
2,2,7 for 4.
- [Mike] Thank you.
- [Narrator] The shore boat picks us up for the 25 second ride to the main pier and we're back on land.
Zack is happy.
The waterfront scene of Avalon has that cool beachy vibe of a surf town mixed with the refinement and feel of a small village on the French Riviera.
Chewing gum mogul, William Wrigley Jr., bought Catalina Island in 1919 and had the iconic casino building built in 1929.
In its heyday, it was the spot to be, and today it's restored ballroom still hosts large events here.
No, not the Catalina wine mixer.
And walking tours at this grand building are available.
Sorry, no gambling here anymore though.
- [Jeff] You can definitely tell like toward the end of the day when those fairies roll out of here the population of this town goes down big time.
Doesn't it?
- [Mike] Oh man, yeah.
Yep.
Yeah.
The beaches vacate.
- [Zack] It's gotten fixed up a lot since I've been here last.
- [Jeff] How has it been since you've been here?
- [Zack] Catalina?
It's been about three, gosh it's been three years about.
Two to three years.
We usually stay here at this hotel, Hotel Atwater.
It's been renovated really well.
It looks beautiful outside.
- [Jeff] Yeah, they've done a lot of work down here.
- [Zack] It's pretty nice.
- [Narrator] After a nice dinner, it's back on the shore boat for a quick twilight run back to Songbird for the evening.
(music playing) A peacefulness sets over Avalon, as day slips in to night and the lights of the town provide a beacon for distant ships on the horizon.
- [Jeff] We woke up this morning and checked, checked the weather.
And it looks like we kind of knew this before we headed out but we were expecting some pretty good winds this afternoon, right?
- [Mike] Right, right at our tails.
We're looking at winds out of the West/Northwest at 20 to 30 but I think it's going to be pretty mellow until about four or five this afternoon.
We should have Songbird back home tucked away before then.
- [Narrator] It's been a fast and fun run out here to Catalina but we're all looking forward to actually getting Songbird in some wind and cutting the engines for awhile.
- [Mike] Goodbye, Avalon.
It's a pretty town.
- [Narrator] Not long after we leave Avalon Harbor, the wind we saw in the forecast greets us just off shore, and we begin the process of raising the sails.
- [Mike] We have 15 knots of wind and we're in a close hall, about 45 degrees off the wind.
- [Narrator] Once the drone of the twin diesel engine stops and the sound of nothing but wind in the sails and waves splashing against the hall, can the joy of sailing be fully understood.
- [Videographer] So, Zack, what do you think about sailing?
- [Zack] It's nice.
Peaceful, engine's off, quiet, wind, water.
It's a nice little work-cation - [Videographer] It is a work-cation.
You guys deserve it.
I'm glad we could do this on our last episode.
- [Zack] It's a nice little break before we ramp back up and do it again even better.
- [Videographer] Right on, baby.
- [Narrator] Like many, I've always been mesmerized by the sea.
I've always wanted to know it better and experience the life found here in a deeper way.
There are obvious challenges to filming on the ocean.
You can ask Zack about that sometime, but however you get out here, whether by sailboat or a whale-watching tour or private charter if the conditions are right, and off the coast of California, they are a lot, this is a magical place to see a diverse landscape of life that is more than ready for you to come here and say hello.
(music plays) - [Announcer] Outside, Beyond the Lens brought to you by Visit Fresno County; Nature.
Diversity.
Found in the heart of California's central valley stay in Fresno or Clovis and drive to three nearby national parks.
By Hedrick Chevrolet supporting the spirit of travel in each of us.
Every journey has a first step.
Start your next adventure here.
By Fresno Yosemite International Airport.
Rediscover your love for travel.
With more options, more flights, more connecting you to the people and the places you love.
And by visit Yosemite Madera County.
California's gateway to Yosemite National Park, explore the outdoor magic of Madera county and be inspired to discover more.
And by viewers like you.
